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It’s summer and you’ve got a kid standing in front you uttering those dreaded two words: I’m bored.

Luckily one of the best ways to combat nothing-to-do syndrome is also one of the simplest solutions. Grab your kids, head to the nearest library or book store and turn them on to the timeless treasure that is a good book.

“In the evening, don’t turn on the TV. Sit down and read for an hour and get everyone in the family to read.”

Cynthia Nugent, an award-­winning kids book author and illustrator, recommends reading to children.

“To teach kids to become readers, read to them when they are kids,” says Nugent, a workshop leader at the Vancouver Public Library ­summer reading camp and whose next book, Mister Got to Go Where You Are, is out in the fall.

“It is the physical closeness that stimulates the brain, it is not just intellectual.”

Vancouver based education expert Terry Small (terrysmall.com) says reading with and to your kids has many benefits — and not all of them literacy-based.

“It’s so important for kids to learn how to focus on one thing at a time and work on attention density. Books help with that,” says Small, adding that novels help kids develop empathy and relationship skills.

Speaking of relationships, reading with and to your kids will pay off as kids grow up, said Small.

“It is kind of digging a well before you are thirsty, to quote the old proverb, because there will be some tough times in the teen years and if you have developed that relationship and laid the groundwork, then reading becomes a natural way to connect on that level it also becomes a way to talk about ideas,” Small says.

“Also, kids figure out we spend our time on what’s important — and if mom and dad are willing to spend time with me I must then be important as a person and then, by extension, if we are reading and interacting with books, then books must be important.”

According to a 2008 study in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, young children whose parents read aloud to them will do better in school and are more likely to develop a love of books and reading.

A 2011 study by the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development found that “children whose parents frequently read with them in their first year of school are still showing the benefit when they 15.”

So once you’ve got the kids interested in stocking up on books for the summer, the next step might involve a little detective work. But you don’t have to be quite as clever as Sherlock Holmes to figure out that your kid would like to read mysteries.

“First thing is definitely ask the kids what they are interested in, then come into the library and we can help them find something that suits their kids needs and interests them,” says Vancouver Public Library children’s librarian Suzy Arbour.

Once a child finds something they enjoy, there is a good chance that the book is part of a series.

“People who have children know children love to keep reading within a series,” says Phyllis Simon, owner of the Kidsbooks stores in the Lower Mainland.

“They read book one, then can’t wait for the sequel to come out.”

Small says there’s brain science behind that inclination.

“The brain loves ‘what next,’” he says. “The brain is a pattern-­seeking structure. If you read book one in a series of five the pattern is incomplete so there’s a natural bias for your brain to want to complete the series.”

“The thing is kids are always reading,” says Cecil Castellucci, young adult editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books and kids author.

“They’re reading their phones, their emails, their texts so I think it’s a matter of figuring out how your kids are reading and then figuring out how to enable that kind reading. So if they are reading on their phone, send them links to cool articles, stories or web comics that they can read in a way that is comfortable to them.”

In the end, though, remember it can be a fine line between school is in and school is out.

“I think sometimes summer learning loss numbers get overblown,” Small says. “Kids can learn an awful lot over the summer over and above what can be measured in standardized test. I think sometimes parents worry too much about learning a lot over summer.”

“What you teach kids to love, in my opinion, is always more important than what you teach them,” Small says. “When you teach them to love books and that learning can add to your life, you are going to then create a lifelong learner.”

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